Second Night
Next morning a mob form and decide enough is enough with the night’s death and they will storm the manor Benedicta tries to tell them that the beast is guided, but fails to convince them and the crowd turn against them. Fortunately Vasily and Verity defuse the mob before Benedicta is more than lightly bruised. They examine the body and the site of where she was seized from. Jessica convinces Yvette to show her the finds so far, which appear to be coins. At the manor, Vasily is asked to try to hunt down and get rid of the beast. He sets out to try to trace the beast’s trail with Verity’s help. The pair eventually follow the trail to a beach where they see the mark left by a rowboat, very probably that of a Vodacce whaling ship in the harbour. Benedicta consults Yvette about the artifact and she can think of two artifacts, both from Avalon, one in Inquisition hands and the other a Montagnian duke in that capital: Duke Miguel etc., etc., de Sadin. We regroup at the church and Verity decides to confront the Vodacce captain. We head for his ship and meet him on the pier. He declines a polite request to board and suggests going for a drink at the inn, which Verity agrees to, leaving the crew guarding the pier. The captain admits bringing a passenger her from Castile a few months ago and then taking him on to Montaigne. He gets tetchy when pressed. Jessica marks him with Porte. Verity presses him and he says ‘the Captain’ is running errands for the passenger, who he suspected of being an inquisitor. Jessica suspects that she could porte over to the capital and investigate. Check with Jeanette who confirms Padre Castare visited her and provided the prophecy. Benedicta advises she’s not heard of a new prophecy being circulated. Castare claimed to be in scholarly guise to avoid undue anti-clerical noble attention. Jessica and Iulia travel to Montaigne and visit the Duke de Sadin, enquiring of his wife about Syrne study and the device he has. The Duke is away in the country and took the artefact with him. It’s apparently a healing device. Jessica is allowed to see his notes. Iulia flirts with Hermione, Jessica’s sister, before they return to Verity’ ship the Valiant Nomad At the manor we learn he used the name Philip di Castile, visited the dig site and perused the findings but didn’t seem very interested. We gather in the manor and discuss what we have found out over dinner. As we wait on the beach we see a dim red light across the bay and hear snarls. At a new landing site we see the rowboat land the controller and something that expands and grows towards the size of a horse. It seems different from the previous beast. Two rowers push the boat off again. In a quick skirmish, the actual Vodacce captain is made to surrender and this beast is slain. Jessica takes the artifact, Benedicta takes the captain’s hat.